If you’re the student who has to step out of class to take a customer service call, this is for you.  First, I applaud you. Keep doing it because you’re getting (in most cases) a better education than that of your class.  While in school, I too was that student and found these tools to be extremely helpful.  It provided an outlet to manage the companies Social Media brand, communicate via email and take diligent notes during meetings that can be easily referenced.  There are tons of cheap, fantastic resources to manage your company.  All of these tools are web based, free or very cheap and are fantastic project management tools:

• Free
• Navigate through multiple applications
• Collaborate with co-workers (scheduling, documents & presentations)
• Fantastic user interface

• Free again!
• Manage multiple social media accounts
• Great customer service and prospecting tool
• Segment people you follow by groups
• Track metrics and statics

• Free again!
• Save notes anywhere anytime: video, web clips, voice etc…
• Sync mobile & desktop notes
• Great video

• Not free, but only $24/mo for basic
• Manage multiple clients on a central platform
• Dead simple to use
• Web based
• Calendars, power points or to do’s all in one place!

• Back up all files on your company for $5/mo!
• Connect to WIFI and Walla
• Secure & safe

I’ve found that one of the biggest challenges of starting a company in college is learning how to manage time effectively.  There’s classes, homework, projects and oh yea…starting a company! The ability to prioritize and figure out what to do first is crucial. I’ve had a lot of trouble finding great accounting/invoicing software that isn’t a boat load of money. Freshbooks is an option but it’s primarily for invoicing, not accounting. I imagine these are only a few of the many great tools out there. I would love to hear some more recommendations, what do you use?

This is a guest post submitted by Brett Kopf who is the Co-founder of remind101 & Social Bonfire, @brettkopf

The College Advantage: Making The Most Of The Campus Community

Thanks to the unique environment furnished by college campuses, students hoping to start their own businesses have a variety of resources to draw upon.

Social Support

Many traditional entrepreneurs start their business ventures with very little social support or advice to guide them.  Students, on the other hand, are often involved in a variety of social circles and groups.  There are a variety of opportunities to network with other young people who share similar interests and drive.  College is a place where most people are still unencumbered with family and full-time work obligations.  Friends can be excellent sources of support and advice.

Professional Advice

Young entrepreneurs seeking expert advice must only look as far as their university’s faculty directory.  Professors are generally happy to help a student that is enthusiastic about their field of research or interest.  Whatever subject you want to discuss, from marketing strategies to product design, there is almost certainly a college professor who will point you in the right direction.

Finding a mentor

If at all possible, find a mentor.  Possible mentors abound on college campuses. Whether your mentor is the chair of the business school or a successful MBA student, having a mentor provides a wide variety of learning opportunities.

An A for effort

Most colleges offer credit for extra curricular projects that fall within your field of study.  It is not uncommon for business schools to offer undergraduate credit to students who attempt to start their own business. Generally, a professor is assigned to supervise and sign off on the student’s efforts. Many colleges also offer the option of completing a senior honors thesis based upon your extra-curricular work. Even if the business proves to be less-than-successful, you still have something positive to show for it on your academic record.

Social Networking

College can be a great place to network.  The student body of an average state university hails from all corners of the globe. Social networking sites make the task of keeping in touch easier than it has ever been before.   Your roommate from Beijing who shares your love of green technology might be the key to taking your fledgling business multi-national.  At the very least, you’ll make tons of friends.

This is a guest post written by Alexis Bonari. Alexis is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is a passionate blogger on the topic of education and free college scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Only 2 days left in this great offer!

The sale is over, but the book is still an amazing one to pick up!

If you have big dreams for your blog but have been putting improving it in the ‘one day’ basket – you’re not alone.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book from Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.

Each day in the project contains:

1. A Task – something to DO that day.
2. Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

This two pronged approach is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic a blog but you’ll have actually DONE something with the knowledge.

How to Use the Workbook

While originally designed for bloggers to work through over a month – the feedback that we’ve been hearing from bloggers indicates that 31DBBB is being used in a variety of ways including:

• Intense Training – bloggers setting aside weekends or weeks to go through multiple tasks at once
• 1 Task a Day – the way we designed it – one day at a time
• 1 Task a Week – bloggers taking their time with the challenge and making the tasks week long tasks
• Monthly Cycle – bloggers using the tasks again and again each month as a monthly routine for their blogging.
• Occasional Inspirational Resource – bloggers dipping into 31DBBB on a more occasional basis – using it on days when they have time or lack inspiration.

The great thing about 31DBBB is that you can do it at your own pace and in your own way.

Who is this Workbook for?

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging including:

• those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
• those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
• bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration

This workbook is NOT designed for bloggers yet to start a blog (PreBloggers). It doesn’t cover setting up a blog. If that’s you check out the ProBlogger book which covers this aspect of blogging.

By the end of the 31 Days you’ll have:

• written a variety of different types and styles of posts
• learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
• promoted your blog in a variety of ways
• built relationships with readers
• reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
• developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
• discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
• designed a plan for the next month of your blogging

All in all the daily tasks are 31 steps to transform you blog into a valuable online asset.

3 New Year Bonuses

Bonus #1: Free Report: 9 Things to Do to Get Your Blog On Track in The New Year
Bonus #2: Podcast with Leo Babauta from Zen Habits
Bonus #3: Podcast with Neil Patel from QuickSprout

There are less than 2 days to get the bonuses, and the half price discount. This book normally sells for $40, here is your chance to get so much more for so much less at just $19.95. I just picked up my copy and plan on starting reading it tomorrow, but I wanted to pass along the great savings and opportunity to you all! Go check it out now! Click here to view more details

I’m happy to share with you all that last week the folks at Unstrapped.com posted their list of the Top 30 Young Entrepreneur Blogs of 2009 and Dorm Room Biz was on the list!!

Definitely go check out the full post for a list of all the sites and hopefully you will find some new ones to follow. But, also, thank you to you all for continuing to support Dorm Room Biz and help to build the site up to what it is today!

Happy New Year,

Chris

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Jones Soda. All opinions are 100% mine.

Izea sure is filled with a bunch of characters! Whether it was Ted Murphy or someone else who found these crazy turkey hats, well, my hats off to you! I’m way behind in writing about this but still wanted to share some of the craziness with you all!

Back a week or two before Thanksgiving, I saw a tweet from the folks at Izea asking if people would like to receive a Thanksgiving care package. I responded with my address and waited patiently. I knew what was in the box, but still wanted it to show up quickly as I was leaving for Washington state for the holiday and wanted to have the hat for that trip. It would have been hilarious, in my mind, when meeting my wife’s grandparents for the first time, to have the turkey hat on – what a way to celebrate the holiday! But, it didn’t show up by the time I left and I had actually forgotten about the package until I picked it up the following Monday.

All of the sudden, my giddiness of a school boy came back and I was excited to open it up. Inside, well there was simply a flyer wishing a Happy Thanksgiving, the wonderful Turkey hat, and a bottles of Jones soda…and not just normal cola, but a Tofurky and Gravy Jones Soda Yum, not!

Now, there is no way in hell I was going to taste the soda, because I can only imagine how gross it is. Or, it could actually be really good, I have no idea and no desire to know haha. If you got a similar package from Izea, I’d love to hear if you tried to soda and what you thought of it. I mean I do like Turkey and Gravy, but just the thought of those flavors in a liquid form…no thanks. But, the bottle will sit on my shelf and be a funny item to pull out when showing people our house and my office!

Maybe I need to start a Jones Soda collection of unique flavors? BTW, my Wife didn’t find the humor in the turkey hat…

I got an email this afternoon letting me know that the website Guide To Online Schools put together a great list of the Top 200 Education Blogs. Among the other featured sites was Dorm Room Biz! What a great surprise and success! The site and myself have been featured in similar top lists for student entrepreneurs and education blogs but it’s always a great honor to get recognized by another website for the effort and work that we put into keeping Dorm Room Biz alive!

So, I encourage you to head over to Guide To Online Schools site to view the full list. There are some great resources on there for students and future college students! Dorm Room Biz is listed under the Campus Life section at#59.

In my short video review of the book Bootstrapping: Weapons of Mass Reconstruction by Sramana Mitra, I mentioned that she brings up the topic of mental capital. At many points throughout the book, Sramana talks about why entrepreneurs and start-ups should not go looking for venture capital, but instead focus on bootstrapping their business…hence the name of the book.

As a substitute for venture capital, she recommends getting as much mental capital as you can. Mental capital is the idea of utilizing the people around you (friends, family, mentors, and other business people) as your mental investors. It sounds pretty simple though – instead of going after venture capital (real money to surge into your business), bootstrap your business and gather as much mental capital (knowledge from other entrepreneurs, mentors, and business people) as you can. The mental capital that gets invested in your business by other people around you can be so much more beneficial to you and your company that it would worth more than any amount of venture capital.

As a young entrepreneur it’s important to soak up and get as much mental capital as you can. Talk with everyone around you, and more importantly, listen to everyone. Ask questions, discuss your business, get feedback, and then use it! If you’re a student entrepreneur, you even have another huge advantage over other young (recently out of college) entrepreneurs – you have so many more resources on campus: Your professors, library, resource centers, etc. Utilize them all, now.

Don’t let peoples suggestions just glaze over your head or in one ear and out the other. Be thankful for the time that people spend in giving you feedback, ideas, considerations, and sharing their contacts with you.

Now, go out there and get as much mental capital as you can and you will crush it.

I’m so sorry I didn’t post this earlier but I am just getting to it and now there is REALLY limited time! Check this out everyone! If you haven’t already tried out David Risley’s 3DayMoney video training course and you want to learn how you can make money online and through your website, then you need to take advantage of this offer.

Like I said, the offer is ending soon, so there is only until September 8th at 2 PM EST to get the half off price of $49 versus the regular $97. It’s a one time deal – one payment, no recurring memberships or anything like that.

In Only 3 Days, You Can Have the Internet Strategy Which It Took David 11 Years To Figure Out! The Same Strategy That Made Me $141,011.55 last year while Being My Own Boss, Working From Home, And Wearing Shorts and a T-Shirt All Day.

By signing up and trying out this course, you get the following:

• 14 Multimedia video presentations where I personally guide you through
• A total of over 2.5 hours of video content!
• A full transcript of the presentations for your reference, any time, anywhere. 92 pages total!
• MP3 audio of all presentations for listening on the go
• Full, step-by-step checklist to guide you through the material and ensure your full understanding

Plus, since there is limited time to act, to make it more attractive, David is throwing in even more freebies!

1. Blogging Formula Using Wordpress – a 12 VIDEO course which takes you  from blogging basics through installing Wordpress, customizing your theme, adding plug-in’s, promoting your blog and getting  traffic.
2. Quick Start Guide To Online Profits – With so many others already earning money and touting the praises of their methods, where exactly do you begin? This report will give you a great head start into the world of Internet business .

It has been months since the last promotion David ran for 3DayMoney so there’s no telling when the next time this offer will come around again!

Elearning the newest thing to hit the streets!

What’s your dream job? Or perhaps dream career? I have a lot. One of them is to own and operate and outfitter, guide company, and restaurant all in one. This means that the business would be a river, hiking, and rock climbing guide service, a camping and outdoor gear store/outfitter, and also have a little “hole in the wall” type of restaurant. That’s a lot in one right?

What’s yours? Go ahead, think about it…I’ll wait.

….

….

So, now that you’ve thought about your dream job, lets get onto the next level. How can you prepare yourself for landing your dream job or situation like I described above? Personal and professional developmen of course! But how are you going to do that while you’re so busy working on all the other aspects of your life and building your life/career/job/situation/etc?

A new resource out there is a website called Learn.com. They have recently annouced the launch of their personal edition which allows you to take different skill tests and developed a ’skill score’. If you’re looking for your dream job, then your skill score also helps connect you with potential employers whose criteria your score fits. Sounds pretty snazy huh? I definitely think it’s worth checking out if you’re looking to do a little personal development. Every bit helps and you can never have too much education!

So, back to my dream situation for a section. Looking through the courses available, I’d consider some of the following:

• Personal/Development – Finance
• Business – Leadership, Customer Service, Operations Management, Marketing
• Compliance – Human Resources

Then, I’d take a look at some of the skill tests that other members have put up on the website that relate more closely to my industry of choice. I’d be focusing on the Sports and Recreation category, the Leisure category, and Travel category.

But what if you can’t find a skill test that you are looking for? Well, if you know enough about an area that is lacking on the website, you can create your own test, put it on the Learn.com website and then make money off of it! The pricing for the courses are very reasonable as well – access plans start at just $3.99 a month!

So, if you’re wanting to land your dream job and develop yourself into the person to fill that position, then checking out Learn.com’s Personal Edition is probably worth it to you. Even if you just sign up and run through some of the free courses, it can be very helpful information!

The final school bell has rung, the sun is shining and temperatures are rising, which all add up to just one thing: summer vacation. This summer, keep the environment in mind when making summer travel plans. It is possible to have a memorable beach vacation without harming the planet. Jodi Helmer, author of The Green Year, offers the following tips for greening your summer vacation:

* Reserve a room at a “green” hotel: The Green Hotels Association (www.greenhotels.com) has a list of hotels in every state that have implemented programs to conserve resources and reduce waste. During check-in, request that sheets and towels be changed only if they’re left on the floor and leave a note for the housekeeping staff asking that the air conditioning be turned off when you’re not in the room.

* Planes, trains or automobiles? Make the right choice: Carpooling in a fuel-efficient vehicle has the least impact on the environment (ask car rental companies about hybrid vehicles). On longer trips, consider taking the train instead of flying. A transcontinental flight generates 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions; train travel creates between 4 and 15 percent of the CO2 emissions (depending on the length of the trip). Bonus: You can avoid long lines at the airport and get a glimpse of parts of the country you could never see from the air.

* Pack light: Excess weight in the trunk of the car (or in the cargo hold on the plane) will decrease your gas mileage. In the car, every 100 pounds of cargo decreases fuel efficiency by 2 percent. It might not sound like much but it adds up on a round-trip to the beach, so only pack the essentials.

* Slather on biodegradable sunscreen: Sunscreen is essential for summer vacation but the same ingredients that help protect against UV exposure might be harming marine life. Scientists have found a link between dying coral reefs and the estimated 6,000 tons of sunscreen that wash off of swimmers every year. Biodegradable sunscreens are made with ingredients that break down in seawater and won’t harm marine life.

The Green Year (December 2008, $14.95, ISBN: 9781592578290, Alpha Books), provides 365 simple and inexpensive eco-friendly ideas for each day of the year. Organized by date, the green living tips suggest small changes and environmentally friendly ideas that make a big green impact. The Green Year is more than a calendar.  It offers practical, affordable and engaging activities that help make going green a blessing rather than a burden.

About the Author
Jodi Helmer is a freelance writer who specializes in writing about eco-friendly topics. Her work has appeared in Plenty, Yoga Journal, Women’s Health, Natural Solutions, Backpacker, Woman’s Day, Family Circle and American Way. She is the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Careers and a professional speaker who offers workshops on green issues. Helmer also maintains a website, www.green-year.com. She lives in Charlotte, NC.